According to La Prensa, Panama's Cabinet Council has authorized Metro de Panamá to contract the PMTS Línea 3 consortium for $16.2 million. The consortium, made up of Nippon Koei Co., Ltd., Nippon Koei Latin America-Caribbean Co., Ltd. and Nippon Koei Lac, Inc., would continue project management, works coordination and technical assistance for Line 3 until June 2029.
What the new contract covers
The services include overall project management, coordination between the different components of the works, and the technical assistance needed for development, especially in the underground section. La Prensa reports that the new contract would run from August 1, 2026 to June 30, 2029, with two additional months set aside for closing out the contract.
Why the contract changed
The original contract, MPSA-19-2022, was signed before all the conditions of the underground stretch of Line 3 had been defined. For that reason, management services were first planned to run until January 2027. According to the report, Metro de Panamá later changed that schedule and set July 31, 2026 as the end date for the original arrangement.
Line 3 project status
Line 3 will connect Albrook with Ciudad del Futuro, in Arraiján, using a monorail system of about 25 kilometres. One of its main components is a tunnel of more than 4.5 kilometres that passes beneath the Panama Canal. La Prensa notes that on October 26, the tunnelling machine Panamá arrived at Albrook and completed the excavation of that underground section.
At that time, overall progress on the project stood at 82%, with completion expected by the end of 2028, according to the same outlet. The information in this article comes from La Prensa's report on the Cabinet decision and the project's latest status.